Summer 2008

Short essay on Philip Roth's first novel, Letting Go, in current issue of Tin House. (You have to buy the journal to read the essay, but it's a great issue, and it includes a fantastic story by the always amazing Adam Johnson.)

Short essay about returning to Sweet Briar College (where Ed taught in the mid-1990s)

November 2007

The Family Diamond was chosen as a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers pick for the Holiday season (November, December, and January), and here's their description of the collection:

"A family's love is like no other. The Family Diamond is not a neat and tidy bundle of stories, and it doesn't celebrate people with clear, uncomplicated lives. What it does is weave together stories of humanity: of a stable brother and his complex feelings towards his flighty sister; of the grandparents who raised their grandson, wondering what advice to offer him; of the father who has long given up on his own dreams but not those of his son; and of the old growing older, more infirm and lonely as the years pass.

Schwarzschild's portraits of life ring true, their messiness and dysfunction a testament to the human spirit, their commitment to moving forward a regular leap of faith. The common thread that joins them is love: romantic love, enduring love, familial love. It is love that joins generations, assured and resilient, that warms hearts and fills lives. And it is hope that endures despite the circumstances, that shines its little head and performs a wholly unexpected miracle.

A truly remarkable collection, The Family Diamond ably reminds us that our journey is what defines us, and it is often our less-than-perfect family that gives us the strength and character to carry on."

May 2007

I'm proud to unveil the jacket for my forthcoming short story collection, The Family Diamond. Here's a selection of advance reviews:

"Edward Schwarzschild is the most exciting young writer I've read, and The Family Diamond shows again that he is a maven of the human heart. Each story is as satisfying as a full moon: tales like "Open Heart" and "Spring Garden" appear on the readers' horizon, rising with awe and renewal, and long after you reach their last words, you feel their over-the-shoulder glow lighting the way. Schwarzschild casts this same warm attention across his characters—the lovers, the lonely, and the wandering forlorn—bringing them into our vision with insight, understanding, constancy and grace."

— Adam Johnson, author of Emporium and Parasites Like Us

"Edward Schwarzschild's flesh-and-blood characters (like the wonderfully perceptive and emphatic, recurring Milly) bring us into a world in which tightly bound families and enduring marriages are always threatened, either by violence from outside forces or by their own destructive impulses—as in life itself! These are absorbing, transporting tales of a mix of generations and cultures—from Odessa to the fringes of Philadelphia—that is ever so American and at the same time universal."

— Lydia Davis, author of Break It Down, The End of the Story, and Samuel Johnson is Indignant

"The beautiful stories in this collection emerge like figures appearing in the dark. They are keyed to a somber register, acquainting us with characters who are elderly, down on their luck, or simply neglected. But Schwarzschild writes about them with such wit and compassion that soon we not only recognize them, we see ourselves in their world."

— Jonathan Rosen, author of Eve's Apple, The Talmud and the Internet, and Joy Comes in the Morning

"It is always difficult to characterize a book of short of stories in a sound-bite, especially one as generous and full of soul as Edward Schwarzschild's The Family Diamond. There is, as one of his characters says, 'No wasted motion' here. An achingly beautiful collection."

— Peter Orner, author of Esther Stories and The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo

I have been chosen to be a Fulbright Scholar in Spain for the spring 2008 semester (January-June).

February 2007

My next book, The Family Diamond, a collection of short stories, will be published in September 2007. More details to come!

I co-edited a special issue (#42) of the great journal StoryQuarterly and it is available now. I worked with the wonderful writer Kaui Hart Hemmings and a committee of current Stegner Fellows on this project. You can see more about the issue and StoryQuarterly in general at www.storyquarterly.com.

Another cool current project-in-progress involved getting a bunch of writers to respond to President Ahmadinejad's open letter to the American People. You can check out the Ahmadinejad Letters project at www.jewcy.com.